Put down three points on a piece of paper. Choose one of them as your “starting point”. Now, randomly choose one of the three points and hop from your starting point, halfway over to the chosen point. Mark down where you’ve landed. Then repeat: randomly choose one of the three starting points, and move halfway from your newly marked point to this new chosen point. Mark where you land. And on, and on, to infinity.
What pattern will arise? Watch and see!
Controls:
E to increase points/second.
Q to decrease points/second.
Click and drag the red points to move them around.
Pressing a number key will make a polygon with that number of sides.
[pjs4wp]
float N = 3;
float[] X = new float(N);
float[] Y = new float(N);
float radius = 600/2 – 20;
float i = 0;
while (N > i)
{
X[i] = radius * cos(2*PI*i/N – PI/2 + 2*PI/N);
Y[i] = radius * sin(2*PI*i/N – PI/2 + 2*PI/N);
i += 1;
}
float xNow = X[0];
float yNow = Y[0];
float speed = 1;
int selected = -1;
void setup()
{
size(600,600);
frameRate(10);
background(0);
}
void draw()
{
fill(255);
stroke(255);
text((str)(speed*10) + ” points / second\nE to speed up\nQ to slow down\nClick and drag red points!”,15,25);
translate(width/2, height/2);
float i = 0;
while(i < speed)
{
point(xNow, yNow);
index = (int)(random(N));
xNow = (xNow + X[index])/2;
yNow = (yNow + Y[index])/2;
i += 1;
}
stroke(color(255,0,0));
fill(color(255,0,0));
float j = 0;
while (N > j)
{
ellipse(X[j],Y[j],10,10);
j += 1;
}
}
void keyReleased()
{
bool reset = 0;
if (key == ‘e’) speed *= 10;
else if (key == ‘q’ && speed > 1) speed /= 10;
else if (key == ‘2’) N = 2;
else if (key == ‘3’) N = 3;
else if (key == ‘4’) N = 4;
else if (key == ‘5’) N = 5;
else if (key == ‘6’) N = 6;
else if (key == ‘7’) N = 7;
else if (key == ‘8’) N = 8;
else if (key == ‘9’) N = 9;
else reset = 1;
if (reset == 0)
{
background(0);
float i = 0;
while (N > i)
{
X[i] = radius * cos(2*PI*i/N – PI/2);
Y[i] = radius * sin(2*PI*i/N – PI/2);
i += 1;
}
xNow = X[0];
yNow = Y[0];
}
}
void mousePressed()
{
if (selected == -1)
{
float i = 0;
while (N > i)
{
if ((X[i] + 5 >= mouseX – width/2) && (mouseX – width/2 >= X[i] – 5))
if ((Y[i] + 5 >= mouseY – height/2) && (mouseY – height/2 >= Y[i] – 5))
selected = i;
i += 1;
}
}
}
void mouseReleased()
{
if (selected != -1)
{
X[selected] = mouseX – width/2;
Y[selected] = mouseY – height/2;
selected = -1;
xNow = X[0];
yNow = Y[0];
background(0);
}
}
[/pjs4wp]